Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran Review – 78/100

Kazemakase Tsukikage Ran really felt refreshing when I watched its first episode. I’ve been watching so many serious samurai-anime, full of realism, death, poverty and suffering that it was very nice to actually see a light-hearted samurai-series. This show doesn’t care whether it’s true to history or not, great for a bit of variety.

The overall story is nothing special. All the events tie around two travellers who keep running into each other, and get attached to each other. They’ve got interesting characters, though. Ran is a nice twist to the silent samurai due to her love for sake and Meow (yes, there’s a character named Meow in this show. You’ll understand when you see her) is actually an interesting variation of the annoying impulsive brat. Each episode tells the story of either one of them getting involved with some kind of local problem, and dragging (almost literally) the other along with her into it.

Especially in the beginning, these stories are rather basic, though it’s clear that that’s not the thing the creators decided to focus on. There are two elements this anime relies on: the comedy and the fights, both succeeded very well, in my opinion. Especially the earlier episodes cracked me up when Ran kept annoying Meow, and vice versa. The battles also are surprisingly well done, for a show of this nature. There isn’t much tension, but the choreography has been done brilliantly. These fights really reminded me of Jubei-Chan 2, though less extreme, perhaps.

The weak point, though, lies in the middle part of this anime. The anime consists out of 13 episodes, and with episodes five till eight, the novelty of the concept begins to wear off. Where the first four episodes managed to crack me up lots of times, these only made me chuckle once or twice, and the fact that the stories all look like each other (as in, Meow and Ran arrive, they run into people, they overhear bad guys, Ran slashes bad guys, Meow and Ran leave) begins to get more annoying by the minute. The fact that Ran is almost invincible and wins every fight with ease doesn’t do much good either.

Thankfully, the final five episodes manage to recover from this when Meow runs into a childhood friend. Starting from this point, the stories get more complex, and actually touching. Ran actually gets beaten by a likable enemy, and we see an old friend of her return as well. These five episodes actually managed to make me care about its characters. This series is one of the few comedy-anime which successfully managed to insert drama and serious scenes into its final episodes. Something which definitely deserves credit.

Overall, it’s been a nice watch, even though it was nothing amazing. It’s a good series for a quick watch, and it does belong in the category of successful comedies. I’m also still wondering why other shounen-series won’t look at the fights of this anime for inspiration, instead of continuing with their slow, uninspired fighting scenes.